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Śrī-Caitanya-caritāmṛta
than the greatest and smaller than the smallest. He is smaller than the smallest in the form of the living entities and greater than the greatest in His form of Kṛṣṇa. If there were no one to control, there would be no meaning to the conception of the supreme controller ( īśvara ), just as there is no meaning to a king without his subjects. If all the subjects became king, there would be no distinction between the king and an ordinary citizen. Thus for the Lord to be the supreme controller there must be a creation to control. The basic principle for the existence of the living entities is called  cid-vilāsa , or spiritual pleasure. The omnipotent Lord displays His pleasure potency as the living entities. The Lord is described in  Vedānta-sūtra as ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt . He is by nature the reservoir of all pleasures, and because He wants to enjoy pleasure, there must be energies to give Him pleasure or supply. Him the impetus for pleasure. This is the perfect philosophical understanding of the Absolute Truth.
TEXT 117
জীবতত্ত্ব—শক্তি, কৃষ্ণতত্ত্ব—শক্তিমান্।
গীতা-বিষ্ণুপুরাণাদি তাহাতে প্রমাণ ॥ ১১৭ ॥
jīva-tattva—śakti, kṛṣṇa-tattva—śaktimān gītā-viṣṇupurāṇādi tāhāte pramāṇa
SYNONYMS
jīva-tattva —the truth of the living entities;  śakti —energy;  kṛṣṇa-tattva —the truth of the Supreme Personality of Godhead;  śaktimān —the possessor of the energies;  gītā—Bhagavad-gītā ;  viṣṇu-purāṇa-ādi—Viṣṇu Purāṇa  and other  Purāṇas ;  tāhāte —in them;  pramāṇa —there are evidences.
TRANSLATION
“The living entities are energies, not the energetic. The energetic is Kṛṣṇa. This is very vividly described in Bhagavad-gītā, the Viṣṇu Purāṇa and other Vedic literatures.
PURPORT
As already explained, there are three  prasthānas  on the path of advancement in spiritual knowledge—namely,  nyāya-prasthāna  (Vedānta philosophy),  śruti-prasthāna  (the  Upaniṣads  and Vedic  mantras ) and  smṛti-prasthāna  (the  Bhagavad-gītā ,  Mahā-bhārata ,  Purāṇas , etc.). Unfortunately, Māyāvādī philosophers do not accept the  smṛti-prasthāna .  Smṛti  refers to the conclusions drawn from the Vedic evidence. Sometimes Māyāvādī philosophers do not accept the authority of  Bhagavad-gītā  and the  Purāṇas , and this is called  ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya . If one believes in the Vedic literatures, one must accept all the Vedic literatures recognized by the great  ācāryas , but these Māyāvādī philosophers accept only the  nyāya-prasthāna  and  śruti-prasthāna , rejecting the  smṛti-prasthāna . Here, however, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu